Asterisk Makes it Simple

Asterisk, the open source PBX, is notoriously difficult to configure. As a result, a cottage industry has grown up around it offering tools and interfaces to make that job simpler. Now Digium, the creator of Asterisk has gotten into the act and today launched its own GUI for the PBX — AsteriskNOW. The software is a beta version and is available as a free download at www.asterisknow.com.

Digium calls AsteriskNOW a “software appliance” and says that it includes all the components needed to run, debug and build Asterisk. This simplifies the job, according to the website, because users “no longer have to worry about kernel versions and package dependencies. Unlike other Linux distributions used to deploy Asterisk, no unnecessary components that might compromise security or performance are included.”